For more than a year, CASS, the state’s largest mass shelter, has been screening older clients for possible dementia or mild cognitive impairment.
Starting this week, researchers will look at what happens when that person gets out of mass shelter and into a private space.
Dr. Heather Ross is an assistant professor at ASU in the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation.
"What we found is that anywhere between 75% and over 90% of older adults who are seeking shelter at CASS do have some evidence of cognitive impairment when we use a screening tool," she said.
Ross speculated that once they moved into their own place, like the Haven, a shelter for older adults, those scores would improve.
"But what we found for some people is that it goes exactly the other way," she said.
So the goal is to figure out why.
"And we think that it's that social isolation not being surrounded by people all the time that really doesn't do any favors for a person's cognitive function," Ross said.
A memory clinic for the unhoused
Meantime, Circle the City, which provides health care to the city’s unhoused population, has partnered with CASS, the state’s largest mass shelter, to create a memory clinic.
Because Ross and her team have been screening unhoused seniors for signs of mild cognitive impairment and most screen positive, it was important to create a place where clients could get additional testing.
"Within a week or two of having that cognitive impairment screening, folks who have a low score indicating that they may have dementia, they are offered an appointment with a specialist healthcare provider," Ross aid.
Even with the best health insurance and family support, it can take months to see a dementia specialist.
